On Friday I had a “routine screening procedure.” I won’t go into gory detail (you’re welcome), but the bottom line was I needed real food thereafter. Julian found a relatively new restaurant around the corner from the surgery center called Trove. This is actually four establishments in one: A walk-up ice cream (parfait) truck, a noodle bar, a bar, and a barbecue restaurant where you can grill the meat yourself at the table or let the kitchen do it for you. At the hour we were there, the parfait and noodle bar components were open. We had udon and pad Thai, along with parfaits. Mine was cookie and cream; Julian had a tea lime parfait, with matcha green tea lime ice cream and graham crackers. The other flavor of ice cream was ube (purple yam).
Yesterday we went downtown to spend our rebate at REI and get some caffeine. We had lunch at Lunchbox Laboratory. This started as a food truck, but now has locations in South Lake Union (Seattle), Bellevue, and Gig Harbor. The décor is a cross between vintage elementary school lunch boxes and your worst nightmare from freshman chemistry (flasks, ring stands, and the like). I had an Upstate New Yorker burger, in homage to my birthplace. A good burger, but only one problem: Monterey Jack cheese. Please! The only appropriate cheese for someone from Upstate New York is NY State sharp cheddar. Julian ordered the same burger, but he wanted Swiss cheese on his. (Philistine…)
We also hit the Spanish Table. A friendly gentleman was giving samples of two Portuguese wines. One was a red Dao, which was a bit too young and astringent for my palate. The other was a most unusual vinho verde (below). Most wines of this type are low-alcohol (~7%) and slightly effervescent. It’s our go-to summer wine because it’s so light. This vinho verde had 11% alcohol and had more body without the fizz. We served it with some salmon for dinner last night. The salmon recipe I used was nothing special, but the wine made up for it.
Not your mãe’s vinho verde.
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